The U.S. government hasn't revealed what discipline or criminal charges roughly 350 San Diego-based Marines faced for their role in a $65 million healthcare…
Honor, courage and commitment are the core values of the United States Marine Corps. However, federal prosecutors say that integrity vanished for hundreds of service members involved in one of the military’s biggest fraud conspiracies in recent memory. The U.S. government has never revealed what discipline, if any, they received and won’t answer any questions about where they are now.
“Especially young enlisted service members,” Barthel said, “they don’t get paid a lot of money. It’s easy for them to look the other way. Marines are typically trained to take risks, and so it becomes easy for them to do that.” The mastermind of the scheme, clinic owner Jimmy Collins, got a 10-year prison sentence. He and his co-conspirator wife, Ashley, were also ordered to pay back the $65 million. The two doctors writing the fake prescriptions were sent away for two years, and the five recruiters got between 6- and 21-month sentences.
And prosecutors seemingly knew exactly who these Marines were. Documents show the recruiters kept detailed logs of their kickback payouts to the sham beneficiaries, making the work much easier for prosecutors to put the pieces together.Starting in January, NBC 7 Investigates repeatedly asked the Office of the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of California and the U.S.
“They would not have been able to commit those crimes if they didn’t have the 350 other people down there being paid kickbacks to get these prescriptions written,” Barthel said. “I would be shocked if the commands took no action, no disciplinary action.”
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